What links the late Idriss Deby's Chad to Egypt and India

Not what you think

The death of Idriss Deby, president of Chad for the past 30 years, renews the focus on electoral autocracies, which are sustained and flourish with the support of western countries.

Deby — and modern Chad’s story — is quickly told. The 68-year-old strongman died of wounds sustained during a battle between his troops and rebels, according to the army. His death came at a particularly untimely moment — he had just won re-election for a sixth time, with an astonishing 79.3 per cent of the vote. Fighting broke out after the April 11 election. His 37-year-old son, Mahamat Idriss Deby, will now run the country.

But the broader point about Chad — and Deby senior — is that it is allied with the US and France. The late president was seen as an ally in the fight against jihadism in the Sahel. France quickly mourned “a courageous friend”. If there is outrage over democratic backsliding across west and central Africa, the West is being awfully discreet.

So too with Egypt. In the past six years of Ab…